Beverage dispensers for tea, coffee, chocolates and the like are well known and have been in use.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,246 discloses beverage dispensers for dry granular base food products having means for metering the desired quantity of the dry food powder with hot or cold water to form the drink which can be instant tea, coffee or hot chocolate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,342 discloses a vending machine for beverages which provide for a selection of either hot or cold beverages from the same machine to add consumer satisfaction. The system involves an electric control system which is adapted to facilitate the necessary separation of functions between the hot and cold beverage systems of the machine.
It is also known to have machines for dispensing freshly mixed cup of juice or other beverages made from concentrate mixed with water immediately prior to the dispensing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,287 discloses a system involving a refrigeration unit to chill the water for the instant beverage to a temperature above the freezing point with one or more concentrated tanks containing the concentrated juice located such as to effectively chill the concentrate along with the water and maintain desired temperature. A pumping unit is used to facilitate mixing of the concentrate with water in a mixing chamber for subsequent dispensing through the machine outlet.
U.S. Pat No. 6,240,829 discloses yet further beverage mixture forming apparatus involving a source of hot water, a source of cold water, a source of beverage concentrate, valve means to supply controlled hot/cold water in a batch vessel along with the beverage concentrate to obtain the beverage mixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,035 discloses yet another food and beverage dispensing system for holding and dispensing of beverage mixture comprising of water and dry concentrate. This prior art involves the use of a primary dispenser and the secondary dispenser wherein the secondary dispenser is operatively connected to said primary dispenser for supply of automatically prepared mix of water and dry concentrate to the primary dispenser in accordance with the amount of food or beverage mixture required to be dispensed from the primary dispenser. The primary dispenser can be a cooling equipment if the desired beverage is required to be cold such as iced fruit drinks.
It would be apparent from the above that various dispensing systems for dispensing beverages such as tea, coffee and the like have been available which are developed to serve specific end uses depending upon the selected beverage and its characteristics desired to be generated by such dispensers. Importantly, to serve such specific end uses/applications that there has been several variants of such systems which cater to specific needs and impart specific user-friendly character to the system.
However, the above prior art systems do involve complexities in manufacture and installation. In some cases the complexities are such that even servicing and maintenance of such units become a problem to the vendor or the ultimate user. While many of the conventional systems for dispensing beverages does include the possibility of dispensing a wide variety of instant beverages such as tea, coffee, chocolate, etc. considering the wide applications and uses and the present day requirements, it has always been a requirement to provide for such beverage dispensing systems which would be simple to obtain, be cost effective and most importantly be user-friendly both in terms of the requirement of the vendor and the consumer.
Additionally, in the case of known dispensers serving chilled/iced beverages it has been the usual practise in the art to provide refrigeration units to store chilled water wherefrom the chilled water is dispensed for preparation of the beverage along with the concentrate. This necessitated the need to provide gadgets to monitor the level of the stored water in the chiller unit at all time apart from adding to the load of the unit. Also, such systems occasionally experience problems of uneven chilling either too cold or not much cold resulting in problems of generating beverage of desired quality and taste.
It is thus the basic objective of the present invention to provide for a beverage dispenser which would meet the above requirements of the art and provide for a simple and cost effective dispensing system.
Another object is directed to provide a simple and cost-effective beverage dispenser especially to make cold beverages such as ice tea, coffee and the like from powders which would be simple to obtain, install and at the same time would be user-friendly to the vendor as well as the consumer.
Yet further object of the present invention is directed to provide a simple and cost effective beverage dispenser especially for cold beverages such as ice tea, coffee and the like which would provide for safe and controlled dispensing of beverages.
Yet further object is directed to provide a simple and cost effective beverage dispenser especially for cold tea, coffee and the like which would provide for effective control over the temperature of the water to facilitate uniform mixing with the premix powder of the beverage such as ice tea (lemon, peach or of desired flavour), coffee and the like to thereby enable serving of the instant beverage of desired taste and character to the consumer.